Friday, January 28, 2011

18 games in September: VIII

Starting pitcher:
M.C. O'Connor

Buster Posey ripped a 2-run homer in the first inning off Mat Latos and that set the tone for an impressive getaway win. The Showdown in San Diego was all Giants--a 3-1 series victory guaranteed they would keep a share of first place. More than anything, the Bay City Boys had to prove they could beat the Padres. With two good teams in the West and the Braves playing well in the East, the only certain playoff spot was a division title. But that was a long way off. Giants pitchers were just getting into a groove! They would rip off another 10 in The Streak before coming down to earth. And they didn't stay grounded for long. They put on a historic display of power pitching in the post-season that won 11 of 15 games and stunned the baseball world. It was quite a stretch of baseball!

Tim Lincecum returned to Cy Young form and that, more than anything else, was the catalyst for the epic run. I would like to hear an argument for someone else as MVP. Anyone. And I don't mean NL MVP, I mean MLB MVP. Tim Lincecum is the most valuable player in the game. Seriously: if you were building a team right now from all the best players, who would you pick over Tim Lincecum? I'd like to know. From where I sit, having the best pitcher on the best team is pretty fucking awesome.

3 comments:

This was the game I attended with my daughter's family. We sat behind the sandbox. A surreal experience in many ways. The first time to a new ballpark. It seemed a soulless place. My seat had horrible sight-lines. I could see none of left field and only half of center. My grandson had a great time. It was a big frickin day care center.Posey's homer was peculiar. A minimal opposite fielder. The crowd cheered wildly so I assumed it was foul. But no, and I began to realize the place was at least half full of Giants fans. The game was one-sided all the way and the orange and black faithful were loud all day. Lincecum was excellent.Wasn't this the day of Torres' appendectomy?

Thanks for picking up my slack, MOC. Great post and I still think this review of these games is brilliant. Wish we got more hecklers. With all the talk of "fluke" out there, pointing out this historical achievement might shut some of them up.Tim got a lot of groundball outs in this game...more evidence of the new slider.It is safe to say that the minute Tim hit the scene, nothing has been the same. Since I believe we have entered a new age in MLB, a young, PITCHER dominant era, and Tim is that era's poster child, yeah, you could say I consider him the MLB MVP. In fact, he is very close to becoming one of the most important athletes of any sport.

Sports careers are ultimately judged by longevity, eg. Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Jerry Rice. Both brilliant from day one but the duration of their brilliance is what gets them in the pantheon. So we shall see. Timmy is clearly the most brilliant Giants pitcher in our lifetime. Only Marichal is comparable.